Southwest or JetBlue

[Alderbrook]

We are thinking of flying with either Southwest or JetBlue to MCO this time from BUF. Can anyone give me pros vs cons or any info on these airlines as we've never flown with them before, just with Airtran.

Southwest is supposed to release their schedule tomorrow. Can you book one way? JetBlue has a great direct flight for our way down, but nothing direct on our way home.

Thanks.

 

[PanamaMike]

Yes, you can book one way on Southwest.

We recently flew BUF to MCO on Southwest and I would use them again.

 

[minnie56]

I prefer Jetblue but SW have better cancellation policies...I would go for the flight that suits your pocket and schedule..

 

[Alderbrook]

Yes, you can book one way on Southwest.

We recently flew BUF to MCO on Southwest and I would use them again.

Do you know how much their prices are usually? Right now the cheapest I have found is Airtran at $215.40 per person round trip (there are 5 of us & this price includes baggage, airfare, taxes & seats). Jet Blue is double this with no direct flight on our way home. I'm just waiting for SW schedule to come out tomorrow to make a decision.

Also can you explain their seating arrangements? Kind of confused since you don't prebook your seats?

 

[PanamaMike]

Also can you explain their seating arrangements? Kind of confused since you don't prebook your seats?

Pretty simple. Your boarding pass shows your place in the bording line. The lower your number, the closer to the front of the line you are. When you get on the plane, you sit in whatever seat you want.

 

[michelle1]

We have flown both and both were very nice flights and excellent service. I would typically fly with whichever offers the best price and non-stop flights but if the price was similar I would choose JB because they have pre-assigned seating and satellite TV on board. Many times we have flown one way with SW and the return with JB...whatever gets me the best price and flight times...they are both great.

 

[Alderbrook]

Do either of them change flights very often once you've booked them? I know Airtran is notorious for that, but we've never run into a problem with them flying out of BUF.

 

[mlegerto]

To be honest, this is my usually flight line. Buffalo to Orlando DIRECT FLIGHT on either Southwest or JetBlue.

What I usually do is i book based on which one is less expensive for my desired date. If they two of them are the same cost (or extremely close to one another) then i usually side with Jetblue for a few reasons.
1) You have a chance to choose your seat in advance with JetBlue. With Southwest you print out either a A, B or C ticket and have to be there in advance to wait in your ticketed line to choose a seat and if you get one of the later B or C tickets it is likely that you will not have seats together with your party.
2) JetBlue offer TVs on every seat. Yes I do not based my decision on this souly, but it is a great distraction for traveling with younger people or with nervous flyers. I also find that it passes the time very well. I also find that because of the screens, there is a little bit more room between each seat ( a little more leg room), but maybe thats just my head playing tricks on me.

Ultimately i would base my decision on which is better for my trip on the prices. Saving money on these tickets always leaves me with some more $ to spend while in the world and I def. appreciate that.

As to service, I did not find one airline more friendly, clean or personal that the other.

 

[potzie2]

As others have said. Jetblue does have assigned seating and the TV, but they only allow one piece of checked luggage for free, so if you need luggage allowance factor that cost in. Southwest has more non-stops to choose from usually and they do have a better cancellation policy (non-fee, just a credit not a refund) so you need to weigh it all out. I will always avoid Air Tran after the flight attendant threatened to have me thrown off the plane for questioning him on why I couldn't put my son in his car seat buckled into the seat I had bought and paid for even though he was under 2.

He was very rude and if I hadn't been on family holiday we might have seen it go further. Plus you don't want to end up on a no-fly list just because I dared to ask a flight attendant a tough question.

 

[minnie56]

Air Tran have been known to offload passengers as they board also! Happened to a Client of mine..5 in the family travelling with another family of 4 that had already boarded. March Break--had booked the flight at least 6 months prior. Checked in, seats reserved, baggage on aircraft. Imagine the time they had getting to Miami for their cruise the next day?!?!?!?!

Awful experience...and AT didn't give a you know what!

 

[Alderbrook]

Air Tran have been known to offload passengers as they board also! Happened to a Client of mine..5 in the family travelling with another family of 4 that had already boarded. March Break--had booked the flight at least 6 months prior. Checked in, seats reserved, baggage on aircraft. Imagine the time they had getting to Miami for their cruise the next day?!?!?!?!

Awful experience...and AT didn't give a you know what!

I did read that before when you posted it previously, but we have flown 3x with Airtran out of BUF & never a problem. We are also going in September so not usually busy, last Sept both flights on Airtran were not full.

Right now this is what we're looking at for flight down. Flight home with Airtran is our best bet by FAR so I'm just factoring flight down.

Airtran - $460 US (this includes baggage) for 5 of us arrives at 7:15 pm non-stop

Southwest - $574 US arrives 4:35 pm non-stop

JetBlue - $648 US arrives 3:10 pm non-stop

Right now I'm leaning towards going SW because of arrival time, although I don't like how we may not be seated together. We have our 4 yr old with us & really, as long as 1 of us is seated with him, not really a big deal. We would do the 24 hr online check-in in hopes to get A or B.

My biggest question is, how reliable is SW in terms of changing flight times? If I book with them & they change our flight time to similar to AT, what's the point of paying extra?

 

[dvc deernut]

WE FLY OUT OF BUF ALL THE TIME. WE USE EITHER JET BLUE OR SOUTHWEST WHICH EVER IS CHEAPEST OR MORE CONVEINENT. JET BLUE IS NEWER AIRLINE TVs AT EVERY SEAT SO YOU CAN WATCH DIRECT TV. ITS GREAT. THEY HAVE DUNKIN DONUTS COFFEE I LOVE IT. MORE LEG ROOM LOTS MORE THAN SOUTHWEST. WE ARE BOOKING FLIGHTS IN SEPT WE JUST HAVENT CHOSEN FLIGHT YET. BOTH AIRLINES HAVE FLIGHTS FOR MCO FOR 89 DOLLARS. YOUR ALLOWED 1 FREE BAG ON JET BLUE. PLUS CARRY ON. SOUTHWEST YOUR ALLOWED 2 FREE. SOUTHWEST YOU DONT HAVE ASSIGNED SEATS BUT AS SOON AS 24 HOURS BEFORE YOUR FLIGHT COMES GO ON LINE BOOK YOUR BOARDING PASS. THE EARLIER YOU ARE THE BETTER YOUR CHOICE.

 

[Alderbrook]

We ended up booking SW on our way down & AT for our way back. We can not have a connection so we booked their $104 non-stop. My dad is not comfortable flying so he'll fly, only if there's no stops.

With JB, TV's at our seats, while nice, isn't worth the extra money for me. If I were doing a LONG flight, it would be worth it, but for 2 hrs, I can read a magazine & we take our portable DVD player for my son. There were no $89 flights for the day we leave also. We are also coming back on a Sunday & they had no non-stop flights on the way home & the prices were even higher. To fly down with JB was $119 + taxes.

So we're booked. It's over (thank GOD, I hate booking flights) & we made all our ADR's on Monday & got everything we wanted. So now we just have to look forward to our trip.

Thanks everyone for your tips

So total there & back is costing $220 US a person, which is not the best deal I've ever gotten, but it's not terrible.

I checked the cost to fly Toronto on WJ down & it was just over double, so we're happy.